The Metropolitan police has publicly apologised for the shooting of a south London mother in 1985, an incident which led to the riots of that year in Brixton. Dorothy "Cherry" Groce was paralysed below the waist when she was accidentally shot by police seeking her son, Michael, during an early morning raid on her home. She died in April 2011 having spent 26 years in a wheelchair.

Scotland Yard said in a statement that a senior officer met one of her sons in July last year. "He also took the opportunity to apologise for the shooting of Mrs Groce in 1985," the statement said.

Commander Neil Basu, the police officer involved in the meeting, said: "There is no doubt that the Met were responsible for the injuries to Mrs Groce in 1985, and it is only right that her family receives an apology. I am happy to for it to be known publicly that I met with her son in July last year and offered him and his family an apology on behalf of the Metropolitan police service."

The statement comes ahead of the inquest this summer into Groce's death. Channel 4 News said yesterday it had obtained documents revealing that a pathologist for her family and another for the police had both concluded that there was a causal link between the shooting and her eventual death.

Dozens of civilians and 10 police officers were injured in the unrest on the streets of Brixton following the shooting of Groce. Days later, disorder broke out on the Broadwater Farm housing estate in Tottenham following the death of another black woman, Cynthia Jarrett, who collapsed and died from a stroke after police raided her home. PC Keith Blakelock was stabbed to death during the subsequent rioting. Speaking in 2011 after the death of his mother, Groce's son Lee Lawrence was critical of the police.

"The police were not held accountable for what they did to my mum, justice wasn't served, and they were allowed to get away with what they did to her," he was quoted as saying in Jamaica's Gleaner newspaper.

"If we park our car on a yellow line we suffer consequences, it should be the same way with the police," he added.